The End of All Things

 

God saw the end of this life as we know it before He ever created this world. We are all on His timetable and He has a perfect will for our life (Ephesians 2:10).

We can make our own plans and have our own dreams and goals; but if they are not according to God's will, we will be frustrated in trying to make them happen (Psalm 2:4).

America plays no part in the overall scheme of the prophecy in the Bible about the end times. America falls from the status of a super power.

The Bible makes no statement about how this will happen: financial collapse, foreign take over from a country like China who owns our multi-trillion dollar debt to them, etc. There is much speculation, but the Bible is not specific.

Therefore, it is best to follow the sage advice of Proverbs 3:5. We trust in the Lord with all of our heart and we do not rely in any way on our human reasoning and understanding.

We make no plans of our own, but we acknowledge God in every moment of our day, and He directs our every step. We realize that we are not wise in our own thinking; so we honor the Lord and turn away from all evil (Proverbs 3:6-7).

As we do this every day, we can be assured that God will care for us regardless of what happens to us. We may lose every penny we save as they did in the depression; we may be put in jail for our faith in Christ; we may die from a terrorist's attack.

We do not know what the next moment of time holds for us; but we do know that God is in the midst of it with us and He will never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

Prayer:

Father God, even though You formed us in our mother's womb, and recorded every day of our life before we were ever born, in Your estimation, the day of our death is better than the day of our birth, because it is precious in Your sight (Psalm 139:13-16; Ecclesiastes 7:1; Psalm 116:15).

Thank you for sending Your angels to carry us to Your heavenly presence, and for guiding us and providing us with Your refuge even in death (Luke 16:22; Psalm 48:14; Proverbs 14:32). There we will never die again, and we will live as your children forever (Luke 20:36). Therefore, we do not have to fear what anyone will do to our body; because You are with us even in death (Psalm 16:9-11).

Thought for the Day:

God lives within us and experiences with us everything that transpires in our life; He will sustain us from the inside out.

Hey, I'm Suffering Over Here!

 

Are you hurting right now, either physically, spiritually, emotionally or mentally? What happened? Who brought this pain and suffering into your life? Do you feel as if life is no longer worth living, or that there is no hope for you or that you are all alone and nobody cares about you? Do you want to end your life, because you see no way out of your predicament? We often suffer at the hand of an evil perpetrator that inflicts his/her selfishness on a family member, a friend or on us personally.

You may wonder why God would allow us to suffer? Well, have you tried asking Jesus to forgive your sins and then totally surrendering your life to Him? Your life will not turn around immediately, because you will still reap the consequences of your past behavior. However, as you start to sow good seed into the Holy Spirit, nurtured soil of your new life in Christ, you will see His benefits and blessings filling up every portion of your spirit, body and soul – your mind, will and emotions.

Many times we even suffer, because we are reaping the results of our own poor choices. We may suffer from debt, fear of financial collapse, unstable emotional relationships, physical ailments or wounds inflicted on us by some one or some force in this tragic, sinful world. God often uses suffering to draw us closer to Him, or to keep us from wandering back into a sinful lifestyle (Job 23:10). If we suffer according to the will of God, because we are Christians, we can commit our body, soul and spirit to God’s safe care, because He is our faithful Father (1 Peter 4:19).

If we choose to live according to God’s Word, then He will protect us from much of life’s suffering (Psalm 119:67, 55:7). We will have the same testimony as the three young Hebrew men facing the fiery furnace; or Job, when he lost his wealth, family and health in a brief instant of time (Job 13:15; 1 Timothy 6:12; Hebrews 12:1; 2 Corinthians 4). When we fellowship in Christ’s sufferings, we draw closer to Christ’s resurrection power in our life, even if we are put to death as He was (Philippians 3:10).

Have you ever noticed that you spend more time in prayer during bad times than during the good times? We forget to praise the Lord for His blessings, but we certainly have a great deal to say when something goes wrong in our life. However, if we turn our tragedy into an opportunity to seek God and pray, He will most assuredly deliver us (Psalm 50:15). We will also see the fruit of His Spirit manifested in our life, as we are refined by these fiery trials (1 Peter 4:12).

Prayer:

Father God, we want to bring glory to Your name. Sometimes, You use our suffering to spur us to live as a testimony to the world around us. We are living examples of the fact that You will sustain and deliver Your Saints through every trial and tribulation (John 9:3). Remind us to look to the eternal consequences of every situation, because the aspects of this world are simply temporal and fleeting (2 Corinthians 4:18). Thank You for comforting us in all of our trials, and help us to share this same comfort with others who are going through similar circumstances (2 Corinthians 1: 4-5).

Thought for the Day:

Our suffering in this world will provide for us an exceptionally, enormous, eternal compensation in Heaven. – 2 Corinthians 4:17